Predoctoral/Graduate Education Programs
INTEGRITY Post-Baccalaureate Program
Integrating Transdisciplinary Research and Training to Eliminate Cancer Health Disparities (INTEGRITY) is a two-year post-baccalaureate program whose goal is to train a new generation of health disparities researchers, through an educational and training experience that will empower trainees to visualize and embrace their future studies with confidence, excitement, and purpose within a culture that fosters fearless scientific inquiry, communication, and belonging. Fellows will be taught and mentored by internationally recognized experts in the science of cancer health disparities research, community outreach, and community-based research participation.
VP&S Summer Research Program (NIH T35s)
The VP&S Summer Research Program is an 11-week, full-time, and in-person opportunity offered at the end of the first year of medical school. The program’s goal is to provide medical students – with and without prior research experience – an opportunity to conduct basic or clinical biomedical research under the supervision of Columbia University faculty.
The program is open to medical students at Columbia University. On occasion, this program also accepts medical students from other institutions.
In addition to conducting research, participants attend a weekly seminar series that includes topics in biomedical research & research ethics. At the end of the summer, students present their findings to their peers and mentors at the Student Research Symposium.
Genome and Epigenome Integrity in Cancer (GEIC) Training Program
This new university-wide training program, Genome and Epigenome Integrity in Cancer (GEIC), will prepare predoctoral students and postdoctoral fellows for productive careers in basic and translational cancer research on the roles of genomic and epigenomic instability in cancer. The educational goal of GEIC is to serve as a premier training site nationwide for emerging researchers who will elucidate the biological processes underlying genome and epigenome instability and translate these insights into cancer treatment. Another important goal is to increase the pool of future scientists engaged in this kind of research. To achieve these goals, GEIC identifies and recruits exceptional trainees, offering them a rigorous and individualized curriculum, and providing them with research experience in the laboratories of 25 investigators at Columbia University.
Cancer Biology PhD Programs
The Cancer Biology PhD track in the Biomedical Life Sciences Program investigates the molecular, genetic, and cellular mechanisms that drive tumor initiation and progression, encompassing cancer cell–intrinsic programs such as genomics, epigenetics, and metabolism, as well as extrinsic influences from the tumor microenvironment and the immune system. Columbia's HICCC, translational expertise, and advanced core facilities, the track trains students to integrate mechanistic insights with cutting-edge technologies to develop new diagnostics and therapies, preparing them for diverse careers across academia, industry, and clinical research.
PhD in Metabolism and Nutrient Biology
The Metabolism and Nutrient Biology (MNB) PhD training program prepares students to work at the frontiers of biomedical research in nutritional and metabolic sciences, exploring the role of nutrition in maintaining optimal human health. The objective of the training program is to prepare individuals who will conduct original basic science research, teach in medical schools and universities, and hold positions of leadership in community and international nutrition.
Reducing Health Disparities Through Informatics
Funded by an NIH-NINR T32 Institutional Training Grant, the Reducing Health Differences Through Informatics (RHeaDI) Pre and Postdoctoral Training Program provides eight trainees with research support, didactic courses, networking opportunities, and financial assistance to conduct interdisciplinary research using informatics and precision medicine approaches to overcome obstacles to health for all Americans.
Environmental Life Course Epidemiology
We call the merging of environmental issues with life course epidemiology, Life Course Environmental Epidemiology. The Departments of Epidemiology and Environmental Health Sciences at the Mailman School of Public Health are leaders in the development of methods in environmental life course epidemiology, beginning with seminal analyses relating prenatal Dutch Famine exposure to later life outcomes and currently with follow up of birth cohorts throughout the world, many focusing on environmental exposures. Indeed, the Department of Epidemiology leadership has chosen to put life course epidemiology among the five priority areas in the department, the Mailman School of Public Health identified the life course as its theme for the academic year 2013-2014, and the Dean of the Mailman School, Dr. Linda Fried, is focusing on interdisciplinary collaborations. Together with world-class basic scientists in areas such as nutrition, genetics, and epigenetics and public health scientists in epidemiology, biostatistics and the social sciences the proposed training program fills a niche in modern population health science.
Pre-doctoral students in this training program will work with two mentors, one in their primary academic department and the other in the complementary department. They will be required to fulfill the requirements of their home departments and take a series of courses in life course epidemiology, toxicology, and research methods.
Medical Scientist Training Program
The goal of Columbia's Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) is to train the next generation of biomedical leaders. Our program emphasizes both clinical and scientific education. The academic environment at Columbia fosters innovative scholarship and nurtures the vision to translate scientific findings to clinical practice.
Hormones: Molecular Mechanism of Action and Functions
The Hormones: Molecular Mechanism of Action and Functions program provides support and training to highly motivated predoctoral and postdoctoral researchers in the field of endocrinology and related subjects dealing with all aspects of hormone biology at the organ, cellular, and molecular levels through modern genetic tools in various model organisms and in human subjects.
Training in Biomedical Informatics at Columbia University (DBMI)
The NLM-funded Biomedical informatics Training Program at Columbia University is run by the Department of Biomedical Informatics (DBMI), but is closely tied to New York-Presbyterian Hospital, the Columbia Data Science Institute, the Department of Systems Biology, and departments and schools throughout the university. The Program offers courses and research training for 1) pre-doctoral PhD trainees and 2) post-doctoral MA and PhD trainees, as well as for 3) post-doctoral non-degree trainees with previous informatics doctoral training.
F30/F31 Predoctoral Fellowships
F30 and F31 Awards are NIH-funded, individual, pre-doctoral training fellowships. These awards are part of the NIH Ruth L. Kirstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Program.
F30 Fellowship
The purpose of this Kirschstein-NRSA program is to enhance the integrated research and clinical training of promising predoctoral students, who are matriculated in a combined MD/PhD or other dual-doctoral degree training program (e.g. DDS/PhD, AuD/PhD, DVM/PhD), and who intend careers as physician-scientists or other clinician-scientists.
F31 Fellowship
The purpose of this Kirschstein-NRSA program is to enable promising predoctoral students with potential to develop into a productive, independent research scientists, to obtain mentored research training while conducting dissertation research.
TL1 Doctoral Student Program
The TL1 Training Programs are intended to provide trainees with additional research training to prepare for a research career that can contribute in some meaningful way to understanding risk of disease, improving diagnosis and prevention, and tailoring treatment based on an individual’s variation in genes, environment, and/or lifestyle.
The TL1 Doctoral Program provides doctoral students with one to two years of research training, which run simultaneously with students’ ongoing doctoral training. The program allows doctoral students to gain knowledge and skill-sets that may be outside of their primary academic or clinical discipline. The interdisciplinary education gained as a TL1 trainee will serve as an invaluable asset in conducting future research and collaborating with scientists and investigators from other clinical and academic fields of knowledge. Participation in this program will not necessitate extending an individual’s doctoral training program. Initially awarded for one year and renewed for a second year with satisfactory progress.